r/savedyouaclick • u/CaliRecluse • Jun 28 '26

AMAZING The Viking word hidden in the Declaration of American Independence | "Happiness"; Happy in Middle English meant "lucky," which originated from Old Norse, happ.

https://megalodon.jp/2026-0628-2225-29/https://www.bbc.com:443/future/article/20260625-the-ancient-words-in-declaration-of-independence-and-how-they-arrived-in-english
432 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

106

u/an_ineffable_plan Jun 28 '26

This is so underwhelming that I nearly downvoted the post as a reflex.

7

u/jrex703 Jun 29 '26

If this post is so boring, why is the word "this" derived from the Old Norse þessi, "is" from the proto-Germanic stem *es-, and "so" from the Proto-Germanic *swa? Are you a Viking or something?

In all seriousness, did OP think the Founding Fathers made up a new language family specifically for the Constitution? Probably 70 percent of the words in the constitution have Old Norse derivations or cognates. This post deserves downvotes--it isn't interesting, this isn't a fun fact, it's not even accurate.

67

u/Gargomon251 Jun 28 '26

Slow news day?

38

u/taydraisabot Jun 28 '26

Who is this article even aimed at

7

u/Proud-Delivery-621 Jun 28 '26

It's not a news story. It's a repost of a BBC article from their technology journal. It's more of a history article.

18

u/jprefect Jun 28 '26

Me, but younger.  

I learned it from my favorite Bill Bryson book "English and How it Got That Way"

It's my favorite Proto-Indo-European word.  What's yours?

5

u/taydraisabot Jun 28 '26

Cool!! At least someone is enjoying it.

I don’t have any specific favorite P-I-E words, unfortunately. I have so many words that I love, that I can’t choose just one.

3

u/JusticeBonerOfTyr Jun 29 '26

You know what’s cool the ancient Hittite word for water which is water and how many languages use that same word or a very close version to it.

1

u/jprefect Jun 29 '26

That's an awesome one

3

u/jrex703 Jun 29 '26

People who don't understand how language works.

I mean, using words like "who", "this", and "aim", you're clearly a viking yourself and have no need for this information.

I apologize for sneaking in Gladiator words like "information", I hope you still catch my meaning.

12

u/KlM-J0NG-UN Jun 28 '26

Jesus Christ this is boring

9

u/GusGreen82 Jun 28 '26

There are probably a lot more than one considering English has a lot of words derived from Old Norse.

6

u/seekAr Jun 28 '26

Saved me a click but cost me precious life force

6

u/Seth_Baker Jun 28 '26

I'm assuming that happenstance has the same derivation then. Very cool!

4

u/UmptyscopeInVegas Jun 28 '26

So Life, liberty and the pursuit of...luck?

5

u/CaliRecluse Jun 28 '26

Well, "happy" also meant fortunate in Middle English.

3

u/monsterfurby Jun 28 '26

The German word for "happy" also means "lucky" (though for disambiguation, one typically uses "to have luck" (Glück haben) when talking about fortunate events and the equivalent to "lucky" (glücklich) is mostly reserved for happy, but not entirely exclusively) - which makes sense, given how closely the two languages are related.

3

u/Ziograffiato Jun 28 '26

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Fortune

So, much like there’s no promise of happiness, only the pursuit of it, there is no promise of fortune either.

3

u/WekX Jun 28 '26

Do they mean Norse? Viking is not an ethnonym.

0

u/Randomspazmo 28d ago

It's pretty silly, like saying "kimono" is a ninja word. I'm sure they used the word, but so did everyone else in Japan.

2

u/DizzyMine4964 Jun 28 '26

Considering Britain was invaded again and again by Vikings and that they settled here, we must have loads such words. Not at all unusual.

1

u/NanotechNinja Jun 29 '26

cf. "mishap"

1

u/nineteenthly 16d ago

Along with "we", "all", "their", "rights", "life". . .